Motley Moose – Archive

Out of politeness perhaps, or in search of a cure for insomnia, I’ve been asked several times to write a diary about current UK politics. That would be great if you’re fascinated by the sight of paint drying, grass growing, or traffic lights changing…

But fortunately yesterday, for her first foreign meeting with a European equivalent, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose to meet David Miliband, the fresh-faced UK Foreign Secretary and said.

“It is often said the United States and Britain have enjoyed a special relationship. It is certainly special in my mind and one that has proven very productive,”

I attended a foreign policy discussion this morning led by Richard Clarke (Former Counter-Terrorism Advisor to the National Security Council and Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator Obama) and retired Major General Gration at the Harry Sudakoff Conference Center, New College of Florida.

The message from the speakers was clear: Senator McCain has been making dangerous decisions for our country for the past eight years and cannot be allowed to take us down the road the current administration has set us on.

That’s the way the world – or at least this presidency – ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

The Bush Administration’s incompetency in foreign affairs has reached its apogee with the debacle in Georgia.

Whatever the delicate rights and wrongs of the problematic borders there, and Georgia’s applicatio to join Nato, Bush and Rice’s foreign policy initiatives have been a model of inconsistency. First they encouraged Georgia to be ridiculously adventurous, then they failed to stop them when they overreached, and now all they can do is utter hollow threats at Moscow without any means to back it up..

Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum of talking quietly and carrying a big stick has been reversed:

Shout loudly and carry a wet fish